Farewell to Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A

I was really sad and shocked today when I was scrolling through twitter and saw this sudden announcement from Angry Robot:

As you will be aware, Angry Robot Books has a history of innovation and we continue to go from strength to strength. We’re constantly trying out new concepts and new ideas, and we continue to publish popular and award-winning books. Our YA imprint Strange Chemistry and our crime/mystery imprint Exhibit A have – due mainly to market saturation – unfortunately been unable to carve out their own niches with as much success.

We have therefore made the difficult decision to discontinue Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A, effective immediately, and no further titles will be published from these two imprints.

That’s not all that’s out there by a long shot, but that should give everyone an idea of the fanbase those imprints had out there, and how shocking the news was for everyone. I’ve been a fan of Angry Robot and everything they do for a while, especially since I won the Robot for a Day competition (where I met the staff and the blogger who was at that point their intern, Leah @ Uncorked Thoughts). I have a huge backlog of their stuff to read, from all three imprints, but I think I might spend this weekend finally getting round to books by Kim Curran, Laura Lam, Gwenda Bond, etc.

The good news is, the books already published will still be supported by Angry Robot, and rights for future books are reverting to the authors. The bad news is that various books that were slated to come out in the next few months won’t be, some series aren’t going to be finished (at least not with Strange Chemistry), and some authors don’t know where they can go next.

I’m going to follow the example of one of the posts linked above and do a giveaway of some of my favourite Strange Chemistry books. Comment with which you want to be entered for, and I’ll pick at random on the 1st July. You can enter for multiple books, but you will only win one. If you would prefer ebooks, we can probably arrange something, but the idea is that I will buy copies via The Book Depository and send them straight to you. I want to encourage new readers to get their mitts on these books and generate some buzz that might help the authors place future books with publishers! And yes, this is international.

So, without further ado, the giveaways:

Martha Wells, Emilie & The Hollow World.

Sean Cummings, Poltergeeks.

Rachel Neumeier, Black Dog.

Cassandra Rose Clarke, The Assassin’s Curse.

Winner’s choice of any book from Strange Chemistry or Exhibit A.

And honestly? I wish it could be more. I have so much sympathy with all the authors and staff affected. Let’s give them a good send off!

ETA: So, the winners! Grace won Emilie & the Hollow World; majoline won Poltergeeks; Erin won Black Dog; ameliazane won The Assassin’s Curse; Jessica won the winner’s choice (and chose Gwenda Bond’s Blackwood). All of them have been emailed and all of them responded already, so the books have been ordered and are en route.

This is so sad, my heart goes out to all the authors. Strange Chemistry books were awesome. There are at least five that I really want, but since this comp is to win one copy I’m going to say I would like Skulk by Rosie Best. Thanks for the chance 🙂

That’s so nice of you, except I live in Australia so the shipping would probably be way too high. I mean, I would pay for the shipping myself because I wouldn’t expect you too, but it might be more to ship it than to get it from the BD.

I’d like to win The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke! Thanks so much for this giveaway. I am so sad about this too. (I really love Laura Lam’s books! I really hope you enjoy them when you get round to reading them.)

I was also sad to here this. While I personally have not read any of these titles yet, I was certainly looking forward to the unique stories they had brought to publication.
If by some chance I win this, I would like the winner’s choice or The Assassin’s Curse.

…..the sad fact that ‘Strange Chemistry’ and ‘Exhibit A’ has closed is something that is so unfair, yet…..life goes on…..
…..my choice would be – Cassandra Rose Clarke, ‘The Assassin’s Curse’ if I do win…..

From my notes: Grace won Emilie & the Hollow World; majoline won Poltergeeks; ameliazane won The Assassin’s Curse; Erin won Black Dog and Jessica won the winner’s choice (and chose Gwenda Bond’s Blackwood). All of them have been emailed and all of them responded already, so the books have been ordered and are on their way!